After coming in as runner-up on American Idol season 13, Jena Irene Asciutto struggled to find her footing in the music industry. She found out during the American Idols Live! Tour that she was not going to be signed to the show’s partner label, 19 Recordings. So she was set adrift to try to figure out her own path to success. Now, after two years of hard work and soul-searching, Jena Irene is ready to move forward at last.
“I had to kind of go back to the drawing board to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be, what kind of message I wanted to send out,” 19-year-old Ascuitto told The Oakland Press. “I basically just spent the past year and a half, two years focusing on my songwriting and really trying to figure things out.
“I had to kind of go back to the drawing board to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be, what kind of message I wanted to send out,” 19-year-old Ascuitto told The Oakland Press. “I basically just spent the past year and a half, two years focusing on my songwriting and really trying to figure things out.
According to Jena, her time on American Idol was “great” of course, but it “didn’t really teach me a lot about artist development and songwriting.” She had so much advice and so many opinions being thrown at her left and right, that she “basically just lost myself.”
After putting herself back together over the past couple of years, Jena Irene is now stepping out into the spotlight again with her new EP, Innocence. The five track EP, released on April 22nd on Original 1265 Recordings, is now available on iTunes. A full length album, titled Cold Fame, will be following soon. Keep up with the latest news and tour dates for Jena Irene at her website.